For Air Force veteran Chris Ford, the fight to end suicide is very personal. A couple of years ago, Ford’s son-in-law took his own life.
And in the wake of a startling report issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs showing suicide among veterans has increased slightly in recent years, Ford is working on ways to make sure other families don’t suffer the same tragedy. Throughout his career, he’s worked to lower suicide rates among veterans.
Ford serves as corporate impact principal for Face the Fight, an organization that has pumped more than $42 million into programs helping veterans struggling with mental health and suicidal thoughts.
“Suicide is very complex, unfortunately,” Ford told KSAT.com. “There’s no single pathway to suicidal thoughts or behaviors.”
Face the Fight was formed through partnerships from USAA, the Humana Foundation and Reach Resilience.
Suicide Report Alarming
Based on the VA’s most recent report, which collected data from 2023, 6,398 veterans died from suicide that year. Perhaps more alarming was the suicide rate per 100,000 veterans, which inched up from 34.7 in 2022 to 35.2 in 2023.
With veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam aging and dying off, the overall number of veterans is declining, yet suicide rates remain high. While the news is eye-opening, it’s allowed Face the Fight to analyze the data, pinpoint gaps in service and target the shortfalls.
“One thing’s very clear in our community, more than 70% of veterans who die by suicide do so by firearm,” Ford said. “So, we’re really focusing on how we can create more time and distance between firearms and veterans in a moment of crisis through their safe storage.”
To look for signs of suicidal ideation, the military uses a peer training program called the Overwatch Project, according to Ford, which focuses on soldiers talking amongst themselves about firearms and suicide.
“Training hundreds of thousands of soldiers and guardsmen and reservists on how to have these difficult conversations with peers they’re worried about, and they’re highly interactive, role-played settings,” Ford said. “This isn’t some click-through PowerPoint presentation on your computer. The feedback from these soldiers who are trained in this is incredible.”
But Ford knows part of the Overwatch Project’s success is because it’s easier to have troops participate when they’re still in the military. Once they’re out of the service, it’s much more difficult to keep tabs on veterans’ mental health needs.
Safe Firearm Storage
Dr. David Rozek, Face the Fight’s senior scientific advisor and associate professor at UT Health San Antonio, said veterans who want to safely store firearms might have many questions, especially if they’re struggling with suicidal thoughts.
“If I wanted to store my firearm outside of the home, because things aren’t going well right now, where do I do that? How do I do that? Can I get it back? All of these questions,” Rozek said.
As a psychologist, Rozek realizes the importance of mental health treatment to prevent suicide, but said prevention must go beyond clinical work. It takes a community effort, including training for those closest to the veteran, whether that’s family, friends, co-workers or businesses they might frequent.
“Where do we know there’s stress related to suicide? Financial institutions. So, your bank, if it has some sort of suicide screening, for example, or has some way of identifying that the veteran is at risk, and then they have some way to connect them to the next step,” Rozek said. ”It’s not just about knowing the people at risk. It’s saying, ‘Oh, I know, and I know what to do now.’”
Helping People See the Signs
But how does one know what to do?
Currently, Face the Fight is creating a toolkit for businesses to utilize if they interact with a veteran at high risk for suicide.
In addition, the organization is working on holistic methods to help veterans and identify signs of suicide risk, which can include insomnia, isolation, and homelessness.
“We know that it’s really important to provide holistic treatment. You can’t just treat someone with therapy if they’re living in a cardboard box or they’re worried about food on their table,” Ford said. “That we’re being thoughtful about all of the wraparound services they may need so that they can return to a life of thriving.”
Those working hard at Face the Fight to prevent veteran suicide also realize it’s a problem with no swift remedy.
“It’s not a quick fix,” Rozek said. “It’s something that does take time, but I think there’s a lot of hope here still.”
But Ford said what the organization has done so far has had a positive effect.
“We know we’re having a positive impact on military and veteran and family lives,” Ford said. “We see it in our data, and we hear it from families themselves directly.”
